Although not exactly desalination, a new technology developed by scientists at MIT and the University of California at Berkeley can harvest moisture from air with humidity as low as 20% using ambient solar energy only. The material is a metal-organic framework (MOF), developed by Berkeley professor of chemistry Omar Yaghi over two decades ago. MOFs have a sponge-like configuration with large internal surface area, which creates the opportunity to store large quantities of gasses or liquids. MOFs can be made by combining many different metals with hundreds of organic compounds. Scientists can then find the best combination to meet a specific need. The current configuration can collect water up to about 25 percent of its own weight with one kilogram collecting about three quarts of fresh water per day. With further tuning the researchers believe they can double that.
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